The Truth
by heartslogos
Summary: In which Snake accepts that Ciel lies.  He also realizes he doesn't care, he is, after all, a Phantomhive servant. It is unacceptable for a Phantomhive servant to betray the young master.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji. I'm quite content reading and watching it.**

"That can't be true…says Emily."

A slow hiss from the other side of Snake's small quarters.

_But I saw it. I'm not lying to you! Surely you smelt the lie on that brat as I did?_

"Don't lie Keats…says Oscar."

_I do not lie, Snake, I was there. They were there. You were there. Why do you delude yourself so? Ask the brat directly._

"Do not insult the young master!...says Emily."

Snake lay back on his bed, closing his eyes as his snakes crawled over him, hissing words of comfort for him and him alone.

He had a bed, a room, a job, food, he was safe. As much as he loved his family, his life in the circus…they never gave that to him. There was always that edge of fear of being run out of town, fear of being insulted. Then there were the secrets. It had hurt that his family had not trusted him enough to include him on their secrets.

Was it any different here?

Snake squeezed his eyes shut before slowly opening them.

Yes. It was different here.

There were secrets, but they weren't secrets people hid. The Phantomhive household was full of secrets, it was a known fact, and no one was trying to hide that. Something about knowing there's a secret and having people try to convince you otherwise was much more painful than having the secrets laid out in the open.

Perhaps it meant that someday he would know the secret. Perhaps it was because no one was lying to him.

Lying.

Snake had always been good at finding people who lied to him. People were easy to read if you knew the signs. But the Earl was not an ordinary person; no one in this house was ordinary.

He would have to ask.

Snake released a hiss of air, holding his hand out to Emily and Keats who slid up his thin limbs to curl around his neck.

"Young Master? May I ask you a question?...says Emily." The boy sitting in the plush armchair looked up at him with one large, deep ocean of an eye. He closed his eye and put down his teacup –the porcelain set from Italy if he remembered correctly from Sebastian's teachings- and leaned back in his seat.

"What is it Snake?"

This was hard. So hard. What if Keats was right? What would he do then?

"When you first captured me, when you asked me to join you, were you lying about the circumstances of my family's disappearance?...asks Keats."

The ocean eye bore into him, Snake resisted the urge to look away. He needed to know. The Earl watched him and Snake could hear his heart pounding.

"Yes."

_I told you so._

It couldn't be. He couldn't be lying.

"Knowing this, what will you do now?" The Earl leaned forward, singular eye burning –how does ice burn?- and the shadows cast by the chair casting a shroud over the young earl –what was his story? How does one make ice burn and become an Earl at such a young age?-.

"Did you lie to the others? Bard? Finnian? Maylene? Sebastian?...asks Emily." The Earl scoffed. Snake felt his stomach drop out from its place within him.

He could feel it.

The answer to the Earl's question.

"No. Bard? He needed somewhere to go where the army wouldn't find him. Finnian? It was either me or the darkness of the laboratory. Maylene? If she did not join me she would have been killed." The Earl paused, his lips curling as he fingered the gem on his finger. "And that man? Sebastian?" His eye glowed, powerful, deep, dangerous, and consuming. "I highly doubt he'd be _here_ if it wasn't for me."

Snake could feel it. The derision, the hate, the sarcasm in the Earl's tone, it scared him. But it did not scare him nearly so much as what he felt.

"Well? What is your answer? What will you do now? Knowing what you do, will you try to kill me?"

"No." The response was immediate. The Earl raised a slender brow.

"Oh?"

"I…I don't think I can." Snake's voice broke. It was true. This was the Earl who had taken him in, knowing that he had violent intentions towards him. He had lied, he had kept secrets…but this earl was also the boy with the brand on his back. This was _Smile_.

This was also the young master who Bard was protective over.

This was the young master who Finnian was so eager to please.

This was the young master who Maylene was so proud to serve.

This was the young master who Sebastian teased and followed without question.

This was the young master that _he_ wanted to make smile, work with, defend, and help.

"So which of your snakes cannot kill me?" The Earl said, leaning in as if reading to go for the kill, his blue ocean of ice-fire steadily burning into Snake's eyes, consuming him and his loyalties like dry timbres.

"None. They all can. But I won't let them."

"Oh?"

"Yes." The Earl leaned back, the heat steadily flowing out of his eyes and returning into a dispassionate gaze as he observed Snake.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, young master."

There was once a time when Snake wanted to kill the one who killed his family. But that was a different Snake. Now he has a new family to serve, a new family to love and protect.

"_**I want to save you too."**_ Weren't those the words the young master had said? Yes. They were. Yes. The young master had definitely saved him. Wouldn't life had been so much sadder if he had done nothing but kill and mourn? Yes. Snake closed his eyes. He had been saved.

_What will you do now, Snake?_

Assist Master Bard in peeling potatoes. It wouldn't do if a servant of the Phantomhive household was idle when there was work to be done.


End file.
